Multiphase flow of miscible fluids in porous media is determined by pore-scale processes. Pore-level observations of fluid flow as well as oil and gas-trapping mechanisms can be used as tools for estimating the behaviors of fluids in porous media at larger scale. Such observations can also provide validation of pore network models and direct numerical simulations of fluid flow.
To produce micromodels, etching of glass or silicon wafers using photolithographic techniques is commonly used. With these methods, an essentially two-dimensional pore network is etched with a certain uniform thickness with little to no connectivity in the third dimension. As such, current micromodels do not fully capture connectivity of reservoir rocks since such rocks exhibit connectivity in three dimensions rather than two dimensions.